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Anatomy For Beginners

23 January 2005

Interview with

Prof. John Lee John - The programme I'm presenting is called Anatomy for Beginners. The aim of the programme is to make anatomy accessible to anyone who's interested. We've tried to do a genuine demonstration of anatomy

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The show starts on Monday night but is being broadcast quite late as this type of programme has never been shown before. Being late in the schedule will also reduce the number of people turning on by accident and not liking it - only people who want to watch it will stay up until 11.05pm. The content is quite strange and some people might find it gruesome. However, we have made the programme in a very straightforward way, not violent and upsetting like many action films. Anybody interested in biology and curious about their own body will like it.

Kat - What's your favourite part of the body?

John - Definitely the brain. All animals have muscles, eyes and so on, but nothing is quite as complex as the human brain. I think it is probably one of the most complex things in the universe.

Chris - Many medical schools are stopping dissection. What do you think about this?

The situation shocks me. Trainee doctors hardly do any dissection for themselves nowadays and instead look at prepared dissections. At some medical schools the students only use plastic models and books. This means that by watching the dissection programme, the general public wills see more of the human body than some doctors!! Wet practicals (when doctors and scientists look at and examine real organisms and chemicals) make the difference between being able to do something in theory and knowing how to do it in practice.